The Next Generation
by LuluTheJunior
Summary: About thirty-one years after Shinichi Kudo shrinks into Conan Edogawa, a lot has changed. Ran eventually moved on, leaving Conan with Ai Haibara. A lot of people died, a few cases were solved, and the fifteen year old daughter of Conan and Ai, Akemi Edogawa, is starting to impress a lot of people with her own deductive skills, but the Black Organization remains strong.
1. Secrets (Akemi's POV)

Notes (just to start, these won't be that common): This is going to be first person with switching POV, and takes place about thirty years after Shinichi shrinks for the first time. This is a (possibly alternate) future, heavily inspired by the possibility brought up in OVA 9 of Shinichi never being able to return to his original state. This is not the exact same story, though. The main character is his and Shiho Miyano's (Shiho at this point would have, at this point, gone from the name Ai Haibara to Ai Edogawa) daughter, Akemi Edogawa (who is named after Shiho's long dead, older sister.). There are three decades of backstory that I wrote, but I don't plan on releasing a timeline or a prologue any time soon. If you have any serious questions or feel like there is a plot hole, then go ahead and leave a review about it. Unless there is an obscene amount of reviews, or I have already answered a question brought up by a review, then I will respond to each and every one both personally and at the beginning of the next chapter.

-1-

It was a rainy day outside, and I had just come home from a first date with my boyfriend, Shinichi Hattori. His family had recently moved nearby all of the way from Osaka, and his father was a great detective, just like my father and myself. I sat on the sofa in our house to watch my younger brother, Heiji, play a video game. He was actually named after my boyfriend's father. Go figure. My mother was reading the news on the internet, and a moment later she called me over,"Akemi, why didn't you tell me about this?"

"About what?" I knew exactly what she was talking about already.

"You solved another case this morning." She turned towards me.

"It was simple, Dad would have cracked it faster." I chuckled.

"Inspector Takagi was telling me just how impressed he was with you over the phone," my father strutted into the room,"He said that you may be the next Shinichi Kudo."

"We both know that that is impossible," I heard my mother mutter.

"What does that mean?" I asked her,"Shinichi Kudo was an amazing detective, but he was killed nearly three decades ago."

She shook her head,"What about your boy's father, Heiji?"

"Oh come on?" My father grumbled,"Like you would compare Heiji Hattori to me?!" I caught my mother glaring at him. If looks could kill, then my capture of her would be on the morning news tomorrow. Every once in a while one of them would say something that didn't make quite so much sense, and the other would stare at them like that. It really was an odd dynamic.

"To you?" I asked,"We're talking about Shinichi Kudo."

My younger brother turned around,"I like Heiji better. You named me after him!"

"I think that your father meant that he is better than both Shinichi Kudo and Heiji Hattori," my mother stated firmly,"right, Conan?"

"Of course that's what I meant. I'm the best!"

I turned to my mother,"You said that you named me after my aunt who passed away before you even met Dad, but I was looking into the name, Akemi Haibara, that's where it would make sense to be, but nothing came up, why is that?"

"She was married to someone with the last name Miyano. He murdered her. Any records would be under that name."

I began tapping away at my phone as I navigated to a page that had interested me earlier that morning,"Akemi Miyano's murder by gunshot remains a cold case… Thirty-one years ago." I read,"Her next of kin, a sister, Shiho Miyano, never gave a public statement, and seemingly disappeared…"

"Stop," my mother demanded, causing every head in the room to quickly face her. This time, Dad was glaring at her,"That news article, everything about it is false."

"What is the true story then?" My brother asked, beating me to the punch.

"Your aunt was murdered. I was only six years old at the time, and I had been living with her as my legal guardian. Akemi was wonderful. We knew nobody of the name of Shiho. A week later, I was dropped off on Professor Hiroshi Agasa as the closest living friend to my family. Despite this, I had never met him, but that was that. Your father and I were in a group of child detectives together with Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ayumi. You know them. Except, for a while, your father received personal training from both Kogoro Mouri and Shinichi Kudo. He was the best, it took until a few years ago for Genta to admit that."

"You told us about the Detective Boys a long time ago, in fact, I feel like you're changing the subject, Mom," I looked right at her,"what aren't you telling us and why?"

"Your mother has always been like this," our father seemed to be attempting to bail her out,"I thought a detective would have noticed."

My brother broke into laughter,"Akemi is so stupid!"

"You won't be solving cases at fifteen, so shut up!" I barked at him.

"You're both amazing," my mother slightly grinned.

My father smiled at my mother,"She has your personality, for sure."

"Don't be stupid. She's a reckless detective freak. If that sounds like me, then I don't quite understand how well we've known each other for these past thirty years." She responded.

Suddenly, somebody rang our doorbell. My brother rushed to answer it. Genta and Aymui were at the door, and Genta quickly pushed himself in. He was holding a bottle of alcohol, but it was unopened. He quickly walked over to my mother,"Somebody came to my office earlier. He was all like, you know that scientist girl, Ai Haibara right, I have something for you to give her. So I happily obliged. His voice was really weird, and his gaze was like ice." As my mother saw the bottle, she just simply began to shake. The label was jet black all around, and in red, stretching across the bottle read the name "Sherry."

Dad rushed forwards, and grabbed the bottle,"Thank you for bringing this to us, Genta. What was that person like?"

"He wore all black," Aymi piped in, then chuckled,"the kind of person who seemed to always make you hyper when we were kids!"

"Mom," I walked up to her,"is everything alright? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah!" I heard Genta yell,"What was with that, whenever you would see someone in black clothes you would get especially hyper, and Ai would just freeze up!?"

"Don't yell inside, Genta," my mother said quietly,"we're not children anymore."

Ayumi giggled,"Genta's always been the loudest of the bunch."

"So what was it about a bottle that freaked you out, Mom?" I looked over it as my father held it carefully. He too was examining it.

"It's nothing," she was clearly lying,"nothing but an old, bad memory."

"Genta," another, woman's voice echoed from beyond the ajar door,"Ayumi."

"Ran?" they questioned.

She shoved in the door,"I found something, I think that it is somehow related to you guys, it seemed important." she held up another bottle, identical to the first.

"Ran," my father stared at her,"it's been so long."

"Yeah," she grunted,"it should not have been, I should have forgiven you, Shini… Conan."

"Genta," Ayumi giggled,"let's give them some time alone."

"Ahh!" Genta yelped as she grabbed his arm,"It's a case!?"

"It's a bottle," Ayumi continued to pull him out,"they just must have remembered some other, particularly troublesome case."

Once the door was shut, my mother and father lead Ran, who I had heard of before, but never seen, to their own room, and shut the door. I followed them quietly, and pressed my ear against it.

"Please," my mother begged,"let us be for a moment, Akemi."

"Mom, I don't like being left out. If there is a secret, then I can keep it."

"You haven't told them?" Ran asked loudly.

"So there is a secret?" I continued,"I promise, I would never let it out."

"You do not know what you would be exposed to if we were to tell you," my father stated grimly.

"I've seen victims of murder, killed brutally, and I've avenged them by putting away those who wronged them, sheltering me from whatever secret you are holding would be foolish. I only need to know a couple more things, and I will solve it."

The door creaked open, Ran, my father, and my mother stared at me. "Take a seat," my mother invited me.

The door was shut and locked behind me,"If we tell you, there is no going back. If we tell you, then you tell anybody, that would be the ultimate betrayal of our family. This is a situation where if everybody knew, then we all would die."

"I understand," I agreed,"I won't even tell my brother, or Heiji Hattori for that matter."

"Heiji Hattori knows, he has for thirty one years."

"Why does that number keep coming back?" I asked.

My mother fiddled with the mysterious bottle, she wasn't comfortable with it, but she looked me in the eyes,"Read the label for me, please."

"Sherry," I responded quickly.

"Good," my mother nodded,"Now take this outside, and put it in a dumpster."

"Why?" I asked,"It's perfectly good alcohol," I joked a little bit. Clearly they knew that there was something wrong it with.

"God damn it, Akemi, just listen to me!"

I ran out with the bottle, and slam dunked it into a dumpster before rushing back.

"So what about it?" I asked

"It was probably poisoned," my father answered.

"What about "Sherry?"" I asked.

"I was known by that name for a long time. It was a code-name. For that time, I was a bad guy." My mother answered.

"A bad guy?" I was intrigued.

"Of course," Ran jumped in,"Ai is a good person, she was forced to do this."

"I made a poison. It was not meant to be a poison, but the organization that I was a part of used it for these purposes. I was not happy with those results, but I remained the head of the project. People who the organization wanted to get rid of cleanly would be fed the poison. No evidence would remain. Until one day, an upstart detective, not different from you at all, carelessly, and pridefully followed two members of that organization."

"They were similar to me?" I asked.

"You have your father's facial structure and mind, but you have my hair and eyes." My mother replied.

"Dad?" I still was slightly confused with how cryptic she was being. None of this really made any sense.

"That detective did not die," my father continued the story,"he felt unknowable pain, he screamed, tortured, for a few moments, sure of his fate, but when he woke up, things weren't the same. He was alive, but he was smaller. He had lost a decade of his physical age in those seconds of agony."

"That would make you Shinichi Kudo." I said surely.

"Why do you think that Yusaku and Yukiko Kudo would have just given us their house as a wedding gift?" He asked me.

"Because it was already your house." I answered firmly.

Ran took a deep breath before continuing,"Then that detective decided to lie to and cheat everybody for three decades. He wouldn't even tell the truth to his girlfriend until she was about to be married. She knew, of course, she just wanted him to stop lying."

"YOU DIDN'T KNOW!" Dad almost cracked up.

"You probably would have caught the damn black organization before they killed my father and husband if you weren't so damn prideful! Heck, I even refused to change my name because I felt that we were meant to be together some day even if I had heard that you were dead nine years before. You faked your death to lie to me, and even then I hoped that maybe there was still a chance. Instead, when you finally did tell me, after living in my house for over a decade, you showed no remorse. You may have felt a little bad about it, but you refused to apologize because it was "for my own good." You would have had my help if you just told me from the start. Instead, you couldn't trust the closest person to you to keep a life or death secret. Your pride always got in your way."

"I didn't want you in harm's way."

"I also see that you still haven't told your friends to this day. You shamelessly went to your own funeral, shed a fake tear, then left."

"So wait," I added,"If Mom made the poison, then why is she here now, and why is she the same age as Dad?"

"I'm older than your dad."

"Yeah, you were like eighty-four when you took it all of those years ago!" they both giggled in some long lost inside joke.

"Eighteen," she corrected him,"after the organization killed my sister, I couldn't continue to work for them, they chained me up, waiting to kill me, so I took my own poison, apotoxin 4869, and waited for my death. Instead, I felt sharp pains throughout the body…"

"Imagine your bones melting," my father interrupted.

"As I was saying," my mother continued,"I shrunk out of the handcuffs that were holding me, and escaped, like a spy movie, through the laundry chute."

"Then she started making temporary antidotes, though she never succeeded in creating a permanent antidote, she gave these to Shinichi, who was living in my house at the time, to help him lie to me."

"It was to protect you," my mother was more cold than normal,"I'm sorry about your father and about Ken, but that would have happened to everybody who any of us knew if everybody knew the secret."

Ran reached forwards, and yanked the glasses off of my father's face,"Take these stupid things off, you don't even need them!"

"Is the organization still at large?" I asked.

"Absolutely," my mother nodded,"and they're still looking for me. Before my name was Ai Haibara it was…"

"Shiho Miyano," I finished,"So the news article was real."  
"Yes."

"So you named your daughter after a woman who stole a billion yen, then was murdered?" Ran asked.

My mother broke up in tears,"She had no choice."

My father looked at Ran sternly,"That was a cruel thing to say, especially for you. I blame myself most for it, I couldn't save her."

"Sorry," Ran shook her head,"I have a lot of pent up anger with you two. I'm willing to forgive you as well, but not to forget."

"I heard recently that you and Yukiko Kudo are still friends," my mother wiped the tears away.

"Yukiko is a good person."

"Tell me everything," I demanded.

"That would take more than a thousand manga chapters," my father sniggered.

"Well a lot of things happened," my mother smiled slightly,"I'll tell you the really important stuff."

We were there for near to two hours as my mother, my father, and Ran recalled everything. They gave their own accounts of the most important events, and even answered some of each other's questions. It seemed that some long lasting tensions were even lifted between my father and Ran. She was shocked to hear that he had narrowly saved her father's life at one point. Though she was angry that he did not explain the situation to her, even afterwards.

My brother was amply distracted by his video game, and did not knock at the door once. We got all the way up to where my mother was telling me about how annoyed she was that she was not informed about the plan on the Bell Tree Express, or even how Yukiko Kudo, Kaito Kid, or Shuichi Akai would be there to save her from the clutches of Vermouth and Bourbon. She even mentioned how at one point that same Shuichi Akai was her sister's boyfriend.

As they were about to start talking in detail about the black organization's second in command, Rum, the phone rang. I answered it on speaker phone and heard Inspector Takagi,"We need you and your father, there's been a murder. The witnesses claim that there were two men in black responsible! One of them was said to have flowing silver-blonde hair. It's at the Suzuki Corporation's offices."

"I'll be there shortly," my father said into the phone before grabbing it and hanging it up,"You stay here, Akemi."

"I'm completely capable of helping." I protested.

"We don't want you involved in any of this just yet. We've been trailing the organization for three decades, you don't know just how dangerous they are." My mother replied.

"We aren't even sure that this is the organization." I sighed.

"That description sounded exactly like Gin," my mother said,"He is seldom seen away from his partner, Vodka, they are two of the most dangerous members of the organization."

"I want to go," I grumbled,"Inspector Takagi asked for both of us!:

"Fine," my father folded,"but you can not leave my side at all, I have a sinking feeling that the whole point of this was to draw us out."

"Well," I thought out loud,"If basically nobody knew about Mom's past except for the organization, then isn't it uncanny that multiple of these bottles were sent out today, then somebody was murdered just after, by people who seem to be members of the organization.

As we were heading out of the door, my mother handed my father a blue and gold badge,"I replaced the batteries in them, if for whatever reason your phone is unusable, or you need to make an inconspicuous call, use it."

"Won't Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko hear?" my father questioned.

"No, they haven't touched theirs in years, and I didn't replace their batteries." my mother opened the door for us to walk out.

My father drove us to the scene of the crime in his nice, red car. The media was already there, and they quickly began taking pictures as we opened the doors. The murder had been in a massive office building owned by the Suzuki Corporation. A girl who I had seen pictures of with Ran was crying to Inspector Takagi.

"Just fall asleep and solve it already," an officer inappropriately joked to her.

"Sleeping Sonoko hasn't happened in twenty-five years," my father said as he approached the scene of the crime, I was at his side. He had told me about this girl a couple of hours ago. There was a man at her side who looked similar to my dad.

I began simply looking around, the television cameras were on me, and it felt great. The only greater rush in the world is catching a criminal. My father seemed to agree with me as he cheated a smile right at the news cameras and people.

Something didn't seem right though,"If you locked the exits right after the murder, then the culprits are still here, right?"

"We haven't found any way for them to leave," Inspector Takagi answered.

"What if they didn't come here when you called everybody here, and instead went the opposite way with a plan to do something, using the killing as a distraction, then an escape route that nobody else would think of?"

"We've had the building swept multiple times, Akemi."

"What if there was some place that you wouldn't think to look?" My father asked.

"It's possible." Inspector Takagi responded, and my father bolted up the stairs. He seemed to have it figured out. I began racing after him.

"Akemi, don't follow me right now." he said to me. I pushed into a room on the side, and looked around for a moment before turning and racing after him. I caught up to him on the roof, only to see him holler in pain and fall to the ground. He was shot right through the heart from a short distance. I waited a moment, I could not just run out onto the roof, but something wasn't right. How would the police have not thought to look here first? Where were the men, it was almost like they shot my father then just disappeared. I looked at the blood splatter from the relative cover that I had, I would have to get him to safety, but that would mean running out into the open. How did they even disappear like that. He was shot from the direction of the chimney, but two men climbing up and down a vertical surface while in heavy clothing that quickly couldn't be it, could it? How would the police not have seen them? I turned downstairs to try to figure out their method. No matter how much I hated it, I would have to find another route to saving my father, if I just ran out like that, I would have been shot as well. If I yelled down for support, they would hear me. I was one floor down when I found a room that was boarded off. I pulled on the boards a little bit, realizing that it was actually set up so that the boards were fake, and were simply a decoration on the door. It creaked open, and revealed an unused fireplace, along with an entrance to that same chimney. I had figured out their method, now the only difficulty would be catching them. There were a large number of shelves in the room as well, and I poked around one of them. My father had always insisted that I learn to play soccer like him, but never was I so interested. Instead, I was always a fan of karate. I mastered it eventually, though there were a lot of people who were stronger than me. I was no champion. Suddenly, I sensed the door softly closing behind me, and the room went totally dark. I spun around in the darkness, but I was unable to see anything. Some sort of smell wafted from all about the room. It wasn't really a smell though. It was a feeling. Some deep instinctual fear had triggered in me, and I was totally frozen. Despite the adrenaline flowing through my body. Despite the absolute do-or-die situation, I could not move a muscle. A moment later, I felt something come down onto my head with such force that I was knocked to the ground. Hardly conscious I noticed a flashlight being shined on to me. Before me were two black-cloaked men.

"She discovered us, she has to die," the taller one told his partner, he had silvery-blonde hair and his voice sounded like death.

His partner nodded in agreement,"Doesn't she remind you of somebody from long ago?"

The first man opened a small box,"She looks a lot like Sherry did," It was filled with red and white pills. Remembering my mother and father's story, I prepared myself. At this point, I was down, and my best bet was to just hope to live through this horribly undesirable situation. I had fallen right into their trap. Was I really about to allow this? One of them was holding a gun. If I moved, they would just shoot me. A lucky survival, even in this low-odds situation was the only, way for me to get my revenge. These men, their organization… Some day, I would catch all of them. I felt the poisonous pill go down my throat, and began shaking. A moment later, I let out a scream as my entire body seemed to melt away. When I opened my eyes, a wave of short lived and and shortsighted relief washed over me, the men were nowhere to be seen. I clumsily rushed up the stairs to the roof, to see my father's body. He was dead. He had been for about thirty minutes, but it would seem that something was keeping the police downstairs. I felt around myself to see that my cell phone was still on me. I started to turn it on, but decided against it, what if somebody tapped into it somehow. Maybe I was being irrational, paranoid even. I had just tripped over my own over-sized pants while rushing upstairs. Nothing felt quite normal.

I felt around my father's body. This was wrong, it was a crime scene, I couldn't take something. I also knew that it wouldn't be important. They had gotten away. The police wouldn't be able to catch them, if they ever had, their organization still wouldn't exist. I would have to catch them. I had to take what I could. I grabbed the detective badge as well as his old bow-tie and watch. Clearly he had them on him for some reason. He didn't intend for this, did he? I pressed a button on the back of the badge.


	2. Involvement (Ai's POV)

Author's Notes: I don't own Detective Conan, as such, this is a non-profit fan-work. I forgot to include this in the last chapter, so I thought that I would here.

Chapter 2: Involvement (Ai's POV)

I had just put Heiji to bed when I heard a beeping noise coming from the shelf where I had the badge. It was a call. I grabbed it quickly, and turned it on. "Shinichi," I muttered hopefully,"is everything alright?"

A small voice replied to me, but I recognized it instantly and absolutely,"Dad was murdered…"

"What?" I was shocked and outraged, but a large portion of these feelings came from the knowledge that not only did they kill her father, but they also almost certainly harmed my daughter. I knew that from her voice alone.

"It was them," Akemi's abnormally small voice quavered. I shook my head back and forth desperately hoping that I had fallen asleep on the couch, and was currently being tortured by my own crippling phobia of the organization in some colossal nightmare, but I did not wake up. I feared the worst. No, Akemi was very obviously alive. That's not what I was worrying for. I couldn't let myself believe it, but I knew that it was true.

"I'm coming to get you, you should have never gone there."

"I'm going to try to follow them, it happened half an hour ago, dad had more of his old equipment on him, I have a good idea of how to use it. It seems that they found some escape route from the roof."

"You're in no state to do that, I doubt you've been walking well."

"I never said that they…"

"I know that they got to you, I'm not stupid."

"My balance feels odd, the rain is really starting to come down. I'm staying on the roof for now, if I show up in front of the cameras downstairs, somebody will probably recognize me."

"You can't stay in the rain."

"I'm trying to solve this, I need to see that Dad is avenged. Also, when I sensed that they were in the same room as me. When they closed that door behind me, despite every thought of mine wanting to attack, to move, to ensure survival, my body wouldn't let me. It was as if that smell, like death, had paralyzed me."

"They have that way about them. I used to be affected the same way. I'll see you soon, try to find a way to get downstairs unnoticed." I ended the call, and went towards Heiji's room, I knew that he would still be awake. I was certain that he had been faking sleep before. I was always bad at it too.

"What were you talking about, Mom," he had been watching me from the hallway.

"I was just coming to tell you, your father was murdered and Akemi will be on a case for a long time. She's going to avenge him. It is the most difficult that either have them have seen, and Akemi won't be back for a while. I've got to go do something, if I'm not back in two hours call the police. Until then, hide."

"I want to come with you, I want to help," tears welled up in his eyes.

"You can't, I have to do this alone." I slammed the door behind me before he could respond. I heard him lock it. He seemed to understand. That's one thing about him that was different from Akemi, he knew when to stop pursuing something. Luckily our family had two cars, and I started our second, driving towards the Suzuki offices. As I was in the car, I made another call, not to Akemi, but to Heiji Hattori.

He answered with a,"What has you calling at this hour? Not that it's a problem."

"Shinichi is dead…"

"Whaaaa?"

"They poisoned Akemi too…"

"Sounds like it's becomin' a writ of passage for your family." He joked.

"Not the time, Hattori!" I yelled back.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm willing to take 'er in if you need, she can't stay with you now, people will find out."

"Thanks for the offer, but I have somebody else in mind."

"Got it," he agreed,"Kazuha probably wouldn't be too happy with that, y'know that we all lied to her for decades… I know how Ran reacted, and the two of them are basically the same."

After the call wrapped up, I arrived at the building, and parked. I waited for a moment, and Akemi ran up to the car. Her clothes were covered in mud, and she tripped over her own over-sized pant leg right before she reached the door. She quickly got up and opened the car door before basically diving in,"We're gonna have to tell Heiji."

"I won't tell your brother. Of course, I had already told the famous detective that my son was named after."

"He'll figure it out, we're around each other for most hours of the day."

"You're not going home." I had to tell her firmly.

Akemi hesitated for a moment "What, but, then, where?"

"Ran Mouri's house." I answered her.

"She won't get it! She doesn't even live with a detective anymore so it won't get me close to any cases!" Akemi pouted.

"I don't really want you close to any cases, at least until you get used to all of this."

"What? Why!" Dad told me that his first case was literally a couple of hours after he shrunk.

"Not that he did either, but you don't know when to be careful. Further, Akemi Edogawa is dead now, at least to the organization, what will you call yourself?"

"Wait a second, you think that they didn't even intend for me to escape?"

"Why would you think that they did. They fed you the apotoxin, they use it to kill."

"Those same two guys allowed dad to get away in the same way all of those years ago, do they sound like the kind to you to make the same mistake twice?" She asked something that I should have thought of first.

I thought about it,"What motive would they have for doing that?"

"What if they want me to lead them to something?" she thought out loud as a look of horror washed over her face.

My eyes quickly shot up to the rear-view mirror,"They're not following us."

"Maybe they have been from some distance," She tilted her head as a woman turned out of an alley on a jet black motorcycle, and pulled beside us.

The woman was wearing no helmet, and she looked right into our window at Akemi. She stared momentarily before mouthing,"Cool girl."

"Vermouth," I muttered, as I pushed harder on the gas,"if she's here, then who else do we have to worry about?"

"Mom," Akemi looked at me,"They've always prayed on your fear, that's what I gathered from your story, what if we go for a more direct route. What if I don't hide, and instead we tell everybody every one of their secrets. That would force the organization out of the shadows, and that would bring a swift end to them. What if we attack, we're cats not mice, and right about now, I want blood." I turned around a corner, and lost Vermouth.

"If we put ourselves out there, they kill us. They kill Heiji. They kill Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ayumi, and they kill every person that they love too. They even kill the Hattoris, I know that you like Heiji Hattori's son, Shinichi. We can't do that."

"What if I could go Heiji Hattori's house, live with him, a detective, and with Shinichi Hattori, his son. Also, I'm realizing now that Dad and Heiji both named their sons after each other."

"Heiji Hattori is reckless, and his wife, Kazuha doesn't know. Also, they were friendly rivals, that probably was the point so that they could someday brag to each other about whose son was a better detective."

"Yeah, but Shinichi Hattori doesn't want to be a detective, he wants to be a soccer player, also we will never catch the organization unless I am in some sort of place to take action."

"If Ran won't take you in, then we'll do that," We pulled over in front of an apartment, and walked up the stairs,"She inherited this place from her father, it used to be a detective agency." I knocked at the door, as Akemi hid behind my legs. She was clearly embarrassed, and in this moment of weakness, she reminded me of myself a little bit.

Ran smiled as she opened the door,"I didn't expect to see you again so soon, come on in, is everything alright, Yukiko Kudo is inside having tea, she was planning to go and visit you guys, but we ran into each other as I left your place earlier, and we got sucked into conversation. She doesn't come back from the States all that often, so I hope you understand."

I tilted my head down slightly, she was probably the last person that I wanted to face right about now. I might have found myself sooner walking up to the boss of the organization and explaining everything than wanting to be the one to have to tell Yukiko Kudo that her beloved son was dead. The grandmother of the child who was just attacked by the organization, and the mother of the man who was just murdered. All the same, we came in.

Yukiko shifted her gaze behind me,"Who is that girl?"

Ran noticed her as well,"She looks like Akemi," she thought out loud as she looked her over,"Her clothes are… Oh god…" She looked like she had seen a ghost. It looked like she was reliving some ancient memory. Everything that she had heard and seen of the organization was rushing through her all at once.

I looked right at Ran and Yukiko as I began to cry for the first time in a long while,"Shinichi was murdered, for real this time, they were together on a case having to do with the organization, and he was shot through the heart. As Akemi was looking for a way to save her father, they attacked her from behind and poisoned her."

There was no immediate response, everybody was as shocked as I was.

"I'm going to destroy them!" Akemi yelled, stepping out from behind me. Her over-sized clothes, and small voice making her seem more like a cartoon villain, than a determined detective and would-be hero.

This seemed to elicit a sad smile from Yukiko despite the obvious tears welling up in her eyes. She never seemed like the type to cry,"Well, we've got the best of the world on it."

"But with Shinichi gone," Ran added sadly,"all of this is going to be more difficult than ever."

"Do you want to be a part of it again, Ran?" I asked,"I would completely understand if you were to say no."

"You're asking a lot of me," Ran thought,"but what can I do that will allow for us to destroy that damned organization. Someone like me, just starting to show up at cases with a seemingly six year old girl for her to miraculously solve them would be suspicious, and trying to pass myself of as a detective, of course allowing Akemi to do the work probably wouldn't be great either. I haven't had anything to do with cases since my dad was murdered. Frankly, I don't want anything to do with the organization, or its case any longer."

"Should we try with the Hattoris, then?" Akemi asked hopefully,"also you don't just "try to fake being a detective" that makes no sense."

"Thinking back to it, Heiji Hattori couldn't keep someone else's cover without a serious effort. Basically, he would probably be a greater danger to you than anybody else," Ran looked down at her,"and further, Kazuha, doesn't know. She would be a liability as well. God, I'm thinking like you guys now… Kazuha is one of my closest friends and I keep thinking of how I'll keep a life or death secret from her next. Also, you never met my dad, Akemi."

"So what do you suggest?" I asked Ran.

"I'll take her in," she nodded,"I'll try to help where I can, I'll see that she remains safe, and if a case comes up which allows her to be there, I'll just pretend that we were in the area. It doesn't make much sense, but it's the best try that we have."

"Which one of them was it," Yukiko looked at Akemi."

"On the way there, I was told that it was most likely Gin and Vodka," she thought back to the event an hour before, and sniffled a bit. She was strong to have not completely broken down by now. I would have if I were there. I think that for all his pride, even Shinichi would have,"He was tall with long silvery-blonde hair. His gaze was a ray of frost, and his voice was deadly."

"If that's not Gin," I replied,"I don't know who is."

Akemi looked at me,"Would you be able to make me new gadgets? A lot of Dad's were specialized for his talents, and a lot of them were old."

"I have a project that I abandoned twenty years ago because I never had the need or the resources to finish it. I will have to finish that, and create gadgets to make your life possible. Just as Hiroshi Agasa was the lifeline of Shinichi Kudo, I will be yours." I smiled a little, I wasn't happy, but I just wanted to reassure her a little bit. Either the silver bullet was gone, or it was her. Otherwise, the organization would win, and we couldn't allow that.

"Thank you," she returned the smile. In light of the recent events, seeing any expression on her face made me at least a little happy.

Yukiko looked around,"Were you followed?"

"By Vermouth," I answered,"I would rather she know that Akemi is alive than Gin or Vodka."

"She's a wild card," Yukiko seemed to agree,"but she could be considered the most dangerous of the bunch."

"We need to find a way to attack them," Akemi paced around the room,"if we can strike in the right way, then we can drive a fissure right through their ranks. If they realize that they are weakening, then they will lash out recklessly. From there, we can win."

"She's pretty aggressive," Ran noted.

"She's angry," I added,"Let her calm down, usually she's cool and collected."

"Their operations have to die," Akemi looked up at the room,"if we never make a move, then they get to keep attacking. It isn't so black and white as a game of chess. If it was, we would have all lost an hour ago."

There was a knock at the door, and Ran opened it. Yusaku Kudo walked in, I hadn't seen him in a good while. He looked around the room, holding the door open behind him,"Hello."

"You've lost your touch, Sharon," Yukiko rolled her eyes.

Vermouth pulled the mask off of her face, and I held Akemi back from running at her.

"I'm impressed," she smirked,"though I hope that I'm not crashing the after party celebrating some great tragedy. That one's a mess. Guess she'll just have to take after her father. Maybe she'll prove more lucky."

"What do you want?" Ran asked.

Vermouth smirked,"I thought you weren't in on the whole thing, Angel."

"Well I am now!" she yelled, preparing herself in a karate stance. Akemi quickly followed suit despite her lack of coordination.

"I just wanted to stay on the up and up, now I doubt Gin or Vodka would be so unnecessarily merciful." Vermouth chuckled,"and don't worry, Gin and Vodka are short-sighted enough to think that poor little Akemi Edogawa is gone for good. They forget how powerful a child made of silver can be. It took them until tonight to clean up their mess from three decades ago. Also, the bottles, I heard about them in passing, but that wasn't us. Whoever sent those had their own motives."

"Why should we believe criminal scum like you?" Akemi screamed and charged Vermouth throwing uncoordinated kicks at her.

Vermouth carelessly pushed Akemi to the ground,"This one is never too careful, I see. She'll have to take some time to get used to her own lack of strength. If she wasn't such a justice-freak, then we could use somebody strong with a mind like hers. What a shame it is that she is so unnecessarily lawful. Trust me, you should know that we don't leave evidence of ourselves in silly things like bottles."

"Why are you trying to help us?" Akemi picked herself up.

"I'm only trying to help myself in the long run," Vermouth walked back out of the door, and closed it behind her. Akemi went out a moment later, aiming her father's wrist-watch stun-gun. She didn't have a clear shot, and she didn't fire it. Just like that, Vermouth was gone. Akemi came back in sadly.

"We'll get them someday," Yukiko put her hand on Akemi's small shoulder,"we're more determined than ever. It always was, but they just made it all a little more personal. If that's not a mistake, I don't know what is."

"I would love to stay for the pep-talk, but I have to get back to Heiji," I moved to the door.

"How is your son?" asked Yukiko as I was about to leave.

"He'll be really confused, but he's strong. I have to tell him that his father was murdered before the news can, and that his sister has dedicated herself to a long and difficult case to capture the responsible party. He's no fool though, and just like Akemi, he'll start to question things eventually. I won't see him hurt by them, but he wants to be a detective just like Akemi and his father. I won't stop him, but he'll be right there in the line of their sights."

"I'll get them well before they have the chance to hurt Heiji!" Akemi declared.

"I hope that you do."

"Alright, we'll get Akemi settled in." Ran said as I grabbed the doorknob to leave,"Do you have any clothes that we can give her?"

"I'll bring some back first thing in the morning," I answered,"she should be able to just wash off and go to sleep."

"Yeah, but having something reasonable to wear would be nice!" she yelled.

"I'll be back after I'm sure that Heiji is asleep, but until then I can't go back out. He must be worried to death," I walked out of the door, and got in my car. I turned it on, and began driving. I sped back to the house, but as I was driving up, I saw a black Porsche just outside. They were monitoring the house. I went around the back, and climbed the fence to get inside without being seen. I walked in to see Heiji waiting for me.

He sniffled,"Were you able to get Akemi back?"

"No," I answered,"She'll be away for a while. We've got to stay strong. We'll be fine alone. Akemi will call every few days though okay."

"What about Dad?"

"Akemi is going to catch the bad men who did it. I saw her, and she promised me. Someday, you may even be a part of this big case." I walked him back to his room.

"Usually she catches criminals right away, how hasn't she yet?"

"Those criminals work for an evil organization. It is international, and they are incredibly dangerous. Your father was going after them for his whole life, and I've been right there with him, but we've yet to catch them. Akemi can finish the job, I know it."

He seemed to understand, and he hopped in bed, then quickly fell asleep. He was incredibly sad, but he would, at some point, be able to move on. Just like his sister, he was very strong.

I walked back out into the front room, grabbed a remote, and turned on the television. The news was playing.

The female news anchor pointed at an edited-on-the-screen picture of Shinichi,"The great detective, Conan Edogawa, was found dead half an hour ago. The culprit is most likely the unknown murderer of the 103 year old president of the Suzuki Corporation, Jirokichi Suzuki. Akemi Edogawa, the daughter of Conan Edogawa, remains missing. We hope the best for the Edogawa family and the Suzuki family." Listening to this, I finally allowed the tears to flow down my face. A few minutes later, I found myself carefully walking upstairs to my room. I turned on my old computer, and loaded up a file that I hadn't touched in years. I hadn't needed to touch it. I typed in the ancient password, and began tapping away at my keyboard. I looked out of the window carefully, and saw that Gin's car was no longer there. With Heiji asleep, I grabbed two small red and white pills and put them in a small plastic bag. I grabbed a pair of old, clean clothes for Akemi, and got into my car with all of the items that I had gathered. I drove off.

A few moments later, I returned to Ran's house, and walked up those same stairs. The door opened just about instantly for me. I gave the clothes to Akemi who ran off to change, then gave the bag of pills to Ran,"I don't quite trust her to be careful with these, but in an absolute emergency, these are some temporary antidotes for her."  
"I'm sure that she'll understand how important all of this is," Ran thought out loud,"She's a smart girl."

"Shinichi did," I looked about,"but he was reckless. She is much like him, but she is also incredibly angry right now. She likes to attack, and given these, she'll see them as an ultimate opportunity to destroy the organization permanently. She will weigh the pros, and act before even considering the cons."

Ran nodded, and hid the bag in a high-up drawer.

Akemi walked out back out of the restroom, now fully dressed,"Okay, so what's our plan."

"You need sleep," I looked at her,"thank god it's one in the morning on Sunday as well, I'll have time to figure things out for you with school."

"School?" she asked,"I'll continue attending as normal, no?"

"Absolutely not," I answered,"you will return to elementary school, as a part of your cover. What will you be calling yourself?"  
"I thought of Olivia Rush!" she answered quickly,"but as far as elementary school, could you think of anything less boring? What if my cover is like a prodigy!"

"That would draw attention to you. I won't allow it." I said.

"Fine, I'll just blow them away then!" She responded.

"If you do, then people will pay attention to you. If people pay attention to you, then somebody is bound to figure out the truth," Yukiko smiled.

"People found out the truth about dad! He weaseled out of it for his whole life!" Akemi exclaimed stubbornly despite a clear sadness emanating from her,"I'm not going to bother doing that. If they want the truth, they can have it. They'll be playing right into my hand."

"Understand me," Ran looked right at Akemi,"the organization will destroy everything that you love, and everything that those people love in an attempt to destroy you. I have witnessed it. You can not allow that to happen."

"This sucks!" Akemi screamed.

"Join the club," I shook my head,"I've had to lie about who I am for thirty-one years. You aren't as alone as you seem to believe that you are, Akemi."

"Why can't we all organize an attack at once, the FBI, the police, everybody?" she asked.

"Did we tell you about the Sera family?" I had to ask her in response?

"You mentioned Masumi Sera, but I've never met her before. You were acting like she was super important, but to me, she was just another piece that disappeared with your story."

"Her mother, Mary, was shrunk as well. The two of them tried an all out attack against the organization. Their plan failed. They have not been heard from since. It was a month after that that your father had to fake his death to keep our covers. They nearly destroyed everything for everybody because they decided to attack relentlessly and carelessly." I spoke sternly.

Akemi just stared. She was horrified, clearly the idea of losing had never even crossed her mind,"But can't we win?"

"Not yet," I shook my head,"you will know when, we have to strike while they are weakest."

She simply nodded at this point. She was finally accepting the fact that this was more difficult than her run of the mill case. Of course, this did not cause her desire for revenge to shrink. She knew that she would win eventually, she simply had to bide her time. I took my leave, and Akemi went to sleep. I would have the coming day to prepare things with Teitan Elementary School to accept the transfer student, Olivia Rush.


End file.
